In war-torn Kurdistan, a group of traumatized orphans is given a gift that could change their lives and the lives of everyone in the world, while in Washington, DC, an elderly woman undergoes medical procedures that radically change her life.

For over 25 years, the Wild Cards universe has been entertaining readers with stories of superpowered people in an alternate history. An outcast learns how fit in at her school and much more in Marko Kloos’s short story “How to Move Spheres and Influence People.”

T. K. hates a lot of things, but at the moment, it’s how she becomes the #1 target during dodgeball at gym. Everything changes, however, when she discovers that she has the ace ability to direct spherical objects — and she makes her classmates pay! But her powers are made for more than petty revenge, as she soon discovers while on a family vacation.

Highlights from the Blog

It borders on cliché that writers tend to metadiscursively tout the importance of storytelling at critical moments. Tyrion’s speech about the importance of a good story in choosing a king in the final episode of Game of Thrones may as well be Benioff and Weiss’ winking plea that the audience trust their judgement. Many are disinclined to do so after a season that was poorly paced and often gave viewers whiplash with the rapid introduction and dissolution of major plots within the course of an episode.

But I will cut to the chase and say that in the end, I loved the finale of Game of Thrones. It took its time and did its best to pull out of the nosedive that many viewers assumed it was in, and—whether or not you feel that Benioff and Weiss earned the trust they solicited in Tyrion’s speech (I myself am very skeptical)—the point they make about the importance of storytelling stands, not just as a pat on the back that privileges writers as the ultimate power-brokers of the human experience, but within the actual narrative: what kind of stories matter and what kind of stories ought to matter in a world like Westeros where power structures are built on the post-hoc justification of conquest? As it turns out, Game of Thrones values, as it always has, stories about the futility of justification.

In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.

In the days before the First World War, while the term “science fiction” had not yet been coined, there were authors beginning to write works that would clearly fit into that genre, authors who included H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. In 1911, an American author joined their ranks with his first published story, “Under the Moons of Mars,” which appeared in All-Story Magazine. That story featured a Confederate cavalry officer from the Civil War named John Carter, who found himself mysteriously transported to the planet Mars and propelled into one adventure after another. The readers loved the story, and demanded more—and some of those early fans went on to become writers themselves: writers who would forever remember, and be influenced by, the evocative world that inhabitants called Barsoom.

I ran my “Young People Read Old SF” review series for about three years. Although it’s currently on hiatus, and while the sample size is of course small, I think it’s large enough that some conclusions can be drawn. The comments sections around the net are similarly a small sample, but again large enough that I can conclude that a lot of you are not going to like what I have to say, which is:

Love your beloved classics now—because even now, few people read them, for the most part, and fewer still love them. In a century, they’ll probably be forgotten by all but a few eccentrics.

Grimdark fantasy is great, but sometimes (especially when the summer sun is just around the corner) we want something that’s more… optimistic. Just a little, at least! We’ve gathered 13 of our favorite brighter fantasies below, but be sure to add your own picks in the comments!

It seems that in the pantheon of Disney’s never-ending live-action (or “live-action”, if we’re talking about The Lion King) reboots, we’re often asking “Is this necessary?” This is probably down to the fact that we’re all aware these reboots are, at their cores, a big ole money making scheme. As a result, we rarely feel the need to ask “Is this fun?”

By 1991, Frank Miller could pretty much write his own ticket in the comics industry. He almost single-handedly turned Daredevil from an obscure Spider-Man wannabe title on the verge of cancellation into one of the “it” books of the 1980s. He then told two Batman stories (The Dark Knight Returns and “Batman: Year One”) that have continued to be among the most influential Bat-stories ever told three decades later.

A fallout with DC over a ratings system led to Miller starting a relationship with Dark Horse Comics, and it was with them that he debuted Sin City in 1991.

There’s something to be said for fearless starship crews, led by charismatic captains, who point their ships at the far reaches of the universe, following coordinates and star-charts to boldly go exactly where they plan to. But we’ve got a soft spot for the underdogs—the folks who woke up with no idea that their day would involve getting tossed into space at the mercy of wormholes or intergalactic highway construction projects. From an astronaut who gets dropped in the middle of a space battle to a tech disruptor who gets dragged by the heart across dimensions, here are six highly relatable stories of stumbling through space.

I ran my “Young People Read Old SF” review series for about three years. Although it’s currently on hiatus, and while the sample size is of course small, I think it’s large enough that some conclusions can be drawn. The comments sections around the net are similarly a small sample, but again large enough that I can conclude that a lot of you are not going to like what I have to say, which is:

Love your beloved classics now—because even now, few people read them, for the most part, and fewer still love them. In a century, they’ll probably be forgotten by all but a few eccentrics.

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone—even the lowborn—a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn’t be more different. Annie’s lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee’s aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city. With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he’s come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves… or step up to be the champion her city needs.

From debut author Rosaria Munda comes Fireborne, a gripping adventure that calls into question which matters most: the family you were born into, or the one you’ve chosen. Available October 15th from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers.

Fourteen years ago, a heartbroken Ifrit (djinn drawn to order) found a dying girl in the desert and saved the child’s life by surrendering hers. Eight years ago a gang of Shayateen (djinn draw to chaos) attacked the city of Noor and slaughtered thousands, all but two young girls and an old woman. Today, Noor is thriving once more, thanks in no small part to an alliance made between humans and Ifrit, but its future is uncertain. Citizens are being attacked by Shayateen and ghuls (undead monsters) and a rebellion is forming in the rest of the kingdom of Qirat.

In the middle of all this is Fatima, one of the three survivors. After witnessing a terrible, tragic death, she finds herself a human teenager with dangerous Ifrit powers. An Ifrit emissary pulls her into the intrigue at the maharajah’s court and soon she is the only thing standing in the way of the destruction of Qirat. With her new abilities Fatima must protect her fractured family at all costs, even if it means killing her enemies. But she isn’t the only one coming into newfound power. A princess, a sister, and a concubine’s daughter must rise above the low expectations set by the men around them and become the powerful women they truly are.

Rejoice for Jean-Luc Picard is back on our screens! And… he’s not doing so great. Now that we’ve gotten our very first trailer for Star Trek: Picard, coming to CBS All Access in late 2019, let’s dig through the dialogue and clues left behind.

Seventeen years after Tor’s original publication of the first Elemental Logic novel, Fire Logic, the fourth and final installment in the series is due out from Small Beer Press on June 4th. In the lead-up, the press has also released handsome reprint editions of the prior books, inviting a fresh base of readers to discover them—including me. Fire Logic was released in 2002 and won the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel the following year. The sequel, Earth Logic, followed in 2003 and also won the same award. Water Logic, the third installment, signaled the publisher shift to Small Beer in 2007—but then nothing for almost twelve years.

As a result of that gap in publication, Laurie J. Marks’s series has lingered at the fringes of my awareness for a long while. I was barely twelve years old when Fire Logic came out, and seventeen when the third book was released; I hadn’t heard of them until I was twenty and delving more deeply into queer SFF awards lists and recommendations. Since then they’ve been on the “if I spot a used copy in the world, I’ll snag it” list but I hadn’t put special effort into seeking the books out as the series remained unfinished…until now. The release of the final novel presents the perfect incentive for finally diving into this continuing classic of queer fantastic literature. Furthermore, the series is as prescient now as ever in terms of its messages about community and resistance. Thus, I’ll be covering each of the novels here in turn, with a new essay appearing every Thursday for the next month.

In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.

In the days before the First World War, while the term “science fiction” had not yet been coined, there were authors beginning to write works that would clearly fit into that genre, authors who included H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. In 1911, an American author joined their ranks with his first published story, “Under the Moons of Mars,” which appeared in All-Story Magazine. That story featured a Confederate cavalry officer from the Civil War named John Carter, who found himself mysteriously transported to the planet Mars and propelled into one adventure after another. The readers loved the story, and demanded more—and some of those early fans went on to become writers themselves: writers who would forever remember, and be influenced by, the evocative world that inhabitants called Barsoom.

I’m a lifelong devotee of speculative fiction, and I spent my childhood reading broadly across that category—fantasy, science fiction, horror. But my favorite books that I read as I grew up always had one major thing in common, regardless of genre: multiple narrators. There’s something deeply compelling about seeing the way different people look at the same situation, showing over and over again that there is more than one side to every story. In YA spec, many authors make use of this storytelling device as a way to bring a cast of characters who seem completely at odds together. When executed well, this broadens world-building and creates depth and tension in character relationships and plot.

Here are five multi-pov speculative YA novels that do a fantastic job of creating characters who seem completely different at first glance, but have more in common than you might think.

This week on the Oathbringer Reread, Aubree and I will be taking a disturbing journey into the Heart of the Revel with Shallan/Veil/Kishi/whoever the heck Shallan’s pretending to be at the moment… Stay tuned for giant black blob of gluttony vs the woman of a million faces! And simultaneously, in one corner of the Kholinar wall… the boy blue, the brooding wonder, the Shardbearer supreme—Kaaaaaaaaaladin Stormblessed! In the other corner, also in blue, the Worldly Woman, the Princess of Persuasion, the Commander in Chief—Viv—I mean, Azure! Who will reign supreme in these two battles before us?

Well, we won’t find out this week as one ends in a distraction and the other in a timely escape, but come along anyway and join us in the comments!

(I’m just now realizing that I have a tendency towards using Wrestling-style intros for some reason, despite the fact that I don’t much care for wrestling… Look, it’s just fun, all right?)